Chess, anyone?

[leadinglabbie]

I just signed up for Hadley's chess courses. I think you get a free accessible chess set (and I think you get to keep it, though I could be wrong about that). I also just ordered a chess set from Independent Living Aids, which has a wooden one (the site doesn't say it's wooden, but it is--I checked) on sale. So, either way, I will have a chess set

Comments

[etana]

I do play chess - been a while so I'm rusty but man I heart it. The chess game on the mac is accessible buuuut you don't has a mac :)

[leadinglabbie]

Still haven't heard one that can talk as fast as my JAWS. :) Also, I've become rather attached to being able to use footnotes. (Is it true that VO doesn't let you access them in Word files?) But, you know, one day...

[etana]

Ah see there are ways to speed up VO so that you'd hear what you want. We need to talk - what verbosity do you currently have JAWS set at? I'll fiddle around and get you the same on a mac, you wait and see.
Also Word/iWorks doesn't work great with VO it's true - but open office does - DOES - I tell you - and it's free. The spreadsheets in Open OFfice are better than excel with JAWS on a pc even - and Open Office can read any file (microsoft et al) and convert back and forth. Definitely an investment I've made - and it's open source so accessibility gets addressed with every new release and they're only on release 3. I love Open Office and I love using footnotes again.

Send me your verbosity level in JAWS and I'll get back to you within the next day about how to set VO to that rate.

Also what other qualms did you have? Let us discuss.

[leadinglabbie]

My JAWS rate is 123, or 75%. Sometimes, I speed it up to skim through something, but that is generally how I have the default set.

So, you can access footnotes and endnotes with Open Office?

Basically, all of my qualms relate to being able to utilize advanced features of programs. I am troubled that Apple hasn't addressed these accessibility issues, so I'm not so sure I can fully and enthusiastically jump onboard. I do know, though, that things are changing. Also, I'm not necessarily saying that *some* accessibility shouldn't be released until *all* things can be made accessible. But I'm troubled by the blind community's acceptance of partial accessibility in so many situations. Still, that is another rant for another time. :) Why do you prefer a Mac to a PC? Are there reasons other than VO?

[etana]

I can match 123 I'm pretty sure - I keep JAWS somewheres between 92-110 and I have a compairable setting on the mac. I know that not all of apple softwares are accessible (nor third party apps) but many many are - including advanced features. Yep, you can access footnotes in open office

[leadinglabbie]

I like that the OS is financially accessible - buy a computer, get your accessibility!

Well, I like the idea of that, too. I mean, something like that would have made things sooooo much easier for me professionally as a VR counselor discussing accommodations with employers. And it sounds like it will actually be true at some point...but it doesn't sound like it's *completely* true right now. I guess it depends on what you use the computer for.

And I definitely, definitely take your point about more power for the buck with less crashes!!! :)

AAAAAAAND open source projects pop up all the time - there are even some OCR softwares coming out that work on mac that are almost almost (and quickly
becoming) better than Kurzweil.

The OCR I use now is better than Kurzweil and costs half as much. (It's more responsive, etc.) What would I use right now if I switched to a Mac? I need very powerful OCR.

Why are *we* buying separate stuff that isn't universally compatible (JAWS doesn't work with much